Partner up with Australia:

A strong slate of factual series for international broadcasters, the success of feature film Breath and the Western Australian Regional Film Fund (WARFF) sees WA, the largest Australian state, making big gains in production.

JANELLE MARR
CHAIR
SCREENWEST

Strong incentives to attract productions married to an organisational culture that asks, ‘How do we help you get this project made?’ are the key elements in making a film partnership work.

Our recent partners have included Gran Via Productions in making Simon Baker’s box office success, Breath; Mystery Road (the television series) made by Bunya Productions which was filmed in WA’s spectacular East Kimberley region and has aired on Acorn TV in the US; and factual series Aussie Gold Hunters for Discovery Communications.

Based on the critical acclaim for Mystery Road, as well as 30-episode drama The Heights (which is currently in production with NBC Universal’s Matchbox Pictures) we are seeing an appetite for these productions to have a returnable second series. This is similar across the factual space, with productions like Outback Truckers and Outback Opal Hunters that have returned multiple series – and the appetite remains strong.

Productions have increased in amount and regularity since the introduction of the WARFF and we’ll work to make sure this trend continues to grow.

Breath

Screenwest has partnered with international broadcasters on a number of different projects. One such project, Aussie Gold Hunters, is a 13-hour returnable, unscripted, character based factual series that follows a group of gold prospectors over their season-long gold hunt, in an effort to strike it rich. It is commissioned by Discovery Communications and broadcast on the Discovery network in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain. Outside of these key territories, it is distributed by London-based DCD Rights, and has been sold to broadcasters in more than 20 countries worldwide.

The first season of the series was broadcast in 2016 and consisted of eight hours of commercial television. In response to its growing success, Discovery increased its order to 10 hours in 2017 and to 13 hours in 2018. In 2019, the fourth season will again be 13 hours and will broadcast around the middle of the year in Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

The series is largely set in the Western Australian Goldfields and Wheat Belt regions, in and around Kalgoorlie and Southern Cross, as well as in remote locations across the length and breadth of the expansive gold bearing areas in these regions. The series is known for its strong characters and stunning locations. It has high production values and makes extensive use of drone cinematography to show the regions at their best.

Currently, Screenwest’s greatest asset is the AUD$16 million WARFF. WARFF enables Screenwest to build relationships with the state’s nine regional development commissions to get projects placed regionally that go on to generate substantial economic activity throughout the state.

Screenwest is committed to finding ways to deepen and strengthen ties with our neighbours to the north that also share our time zone. It makes good sense to work on fostering ties with Indonesia and China – and we’ve got some exciting things in the pipeline.

In addition to the Australian Government incentives and WARFF, our Matched Development Funding initiatives undeniably makes Screenwest one of the the most competitive screen funding organisations in the country.

Through that we provide matched funding for projects that have received a development investment from a nationally or internationally recognised broadcaster or distributor.

Western Australia is not just a viable place to make screen content, but the place to make screen content. The locations in our beautiful state make it Australia’s best outdoor studio.

For more information about Screenwest’s support, contact:

Matthew Horrocks
Head of Development & Production
[email protected]
www.screenwest.wa.gov.au